Relationship Killer
by Matatabi-chan
Summary: A case of a starved woman leads to older cases coming to light. When Beckett is the next victim taken, can the others find her in time? or will the killer finish the mission and kill another relationship?
1. Chapter 1

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING OF THE ORIGONAL SHOW 'CASTLE'!

Chapter 1

"You're going with my mother and Alexis to get the dresses?" Castle asked as they walked towards the yellow tape leading to a large boarded up building.

"Yes, Alexis said she needs help picking a dress to wear and your mother wants to help." Beckett told him.

"Talking about our girls night?" Lanie asked looking up from the body as Beckett nodded as Castle looked at the two women. "Oh cheer up Castle; you'll love the dresses when you see them at the wedding."

"What fun is that?" He asked.

"Who are you taking to the wedding anyway?" Lanie asked and saw him shrug. "Have anyone in mind?"

"I might." He smirked but any retort from the two women was cut off as Esposito walked over.

"She was discovered by a couple of teens wanting some private time. There was no identification on the body. Found this off to the side." Esposito said handing Beckett a letter in a plastic bag.

"See if CSU can get anything off of it." She handed it back. Esposito nodded and walked away with the paper. "What about the body?"

"As far as I can tell it looks like starvation. I'll look closer back at the morgue and I'll let you know what I find." Lanie told her as several assistants began moving the body into the body bag.

"Ryan, get a list of people who has had access to the building." Beckett said before looking back at Lanie. "Let me know what you find." Lanie nodded before Beckett and Castle started back to her car.

"So what do the dresses look like?" Castle asked as he looked off into space pretending to imagine what the dresses would look like.

"You'll have to see at the wedding. There's no way you'll be able to picture them, Castle." She said with a small smile as he looked at her surprised.

That afternoon Castle sat looking through the files of missing persons with the detectives. The prints of their victim were not in the system so it was time for the manual work. Ryan sighed and sat back in his seat, he and Esposito had been at it for two hours before Beckett and Castle sat down to help.

"This is a lot to sift through." Castle said as he pushed another file to the side.

"We don't have another way. Not everyone has your budget, Castle." Beckett said only glancing at him before looking through yet another file. Castle looked up at her for a minute before seeing the little smirk tugging at her lips before he turned back to his files. After another hour, they heard a knock on the doorframe making them all look up.

"Hey sweetie." Castle said seeing Alexis with a girl the same age and an older woman. Alexis smiled and walked over to the table with the two following. Alexis looked at the files all over the table and then back at her father.

"Can't find the victim?" She asked as Castle shook his head. "I thought you could use a computer for this."

"Did you know that, apparently, not everyone has my budget for all the cool stuff?" He asked his daughter with a smirk making her shake her head at him and look at Beckett.

"Gram is going to meet us there. She had to stop off and get something from home." Alexis told Beckett. "This is my friend Sam and her mom, Karen Walker. Sam is going to go with us, if it's okay with you, Lanie and Jenny."

"Wait. Where are you going?" Esposito asked making Beckett smirk as she stood up.

"They're apparently going for a dress fitting." Castle told him. "Did you see the dresses?" Esposito shook his head and both men looked at Ryan.

"I'm not even allowed to know what color they are." Ryan said defensive.

"What store are you going to?" Esposito asked as Lanie walked in.

"Uh-uh. You boys aren't going to know anything until the wedding."

"Well you know we need to be prepared for the dresses." Esposito said. "We need to know if we have to be ready to not laugh or-"

"You keep going with that sentence, imma smack you." Esposito fell quiet. "We should go before they decide to tail us." She told Beckett as she eyed the men suspiciously.

"I can always just ask my mother." Castle tried to whisper to Esposito. Suddenly Alexis had a hold of his ear and twisted a bit.

"Gram won't tell you and if you try to follow us or look at the dresses there will be conciseness. Got it?" She asked sternly as Castle nodded. She let go as the other two men were chuckling at him.

"Javier Esposito. You won't think it's so funny when I smack you." The detective went straight face as Beckett smirked.

"Take a break from this; we'll keep looking in the morning." She turned towards the door then looked back at the men. "Oh, if I find out any of you followed us or looked at the dresses, there will be pain." The men looked at her a minute before Castle stood quickly.

"We were just going to go to the old haunt and wait for you girls to get finished." He said with a shrug and looked at the two detectives as they stood too.

"As long as the drinks are on you." Esposito said.

"I thought the old haunt wasn't open yet." Karen said looking at the three.

"It is when you know the owner." Ryan grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and pulled it on. "Besides it's open just not like a real bar until later."

"You know the owner?" Karen asked surprised as Alexis and Beckett rolled their eyes while Castle smirked.

"Drinks tonight are on me." Castle said. "You are more than welcome to join us." He saw her smile. "Get the most expensive dress there." He told Alexis who only smiled and hugged him.

"I won't spend too much, it's Gram you have to worry about." She saw the confused look on his face. "Remember you told her you would pay for her outfit to the wedding if she would stop taking your liquor to her friends' houses?" Castle made an 'o' with his mouth and nodded. "I'll take care of her. I'll call when we're done." She hugged him again and grabbed her friend by the arm leading her into the bullpen while Lanie told Esposito she would see him later and Beckett waited for her, taking one last look at Castle as he turned to talk to Karen again.

The women were walking around the shop trying to help Alexis find a dress since they knew the dresses the brides' maids would have. Alexis walked into the same isle as Beckett and started looking on the opposite rack. Beckett was silent for a while before glancing over her shoulder at the girl.

"So your dad seems to like that woman." She said making Alexis looked over and nod.

"Yeah. They've been talking for the past few weeks now. Her husband left and the divorce was finalized last month. It's good for her to have dad to help her, Sam said she took it pretty hard when her husband left."

"Was her husband, Sam's father?"

"No, Sam's dad died when she was real little. Her mom married the guy when Sam was like 6. She said that since her mom started spending time with my dad that she's been so much happier."

"She seems really nice."

"Here, look at this one." They heard Martha say as she walked closer. "And who are we talking about that's nice?"

"We were just talking about how dad is helping Ms. Walker." Alexis said as she took the dress from her grandmother and held it in front of her. "I'm surprised dad didn't say anything about her. They've been going out to talk a few nights every week." Alexis said before turning towards the changing rooms. Beckett paused for a split second and blinked before going back to looking at the dresses. Martha didn't miss the look that crossed her face at the mention of Castle spending so much time with the woman.

"You don't have anything to worry about. He's not interested in her like that." She said making Beckett look at her. "You can pretend you don't feel it and you can try to hide it from everyone, especially my son but you can't fool me."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Beckett denied.

"Oh, come now. You cannot fool Martha Rogers when it comes to feelings. You might not want to admit it to anyone or even yourself but there is no woman Richard has spent more time with and come home happy, he's never talked so much about any other woman except Alexis. He's put his life on the line to be able to follow you around, and I know it's not about the books any more. If you want my advice. I say go for it, Kiddo." Martha smiled and walked towards the changing rooms to find her granddaughter while Beckett stood in her place thinking.

"Kate." She heard making her walked over to where Lanie was walking out of her changing room with a floor length purple, strapless gown with an organza beaded inset, and a gathered look to the right hip. "The room's all yours, your dress is on the hanger in the bag." Beckett went in, changed into her gown, and stood waiting for her turn at the fitting.

"Wow, you guys look gorgeous." Sam said looking at Jenny in her wedding dress, Beckett and Lanie in their brides' maid dresses and Alexis in her knee length deep blue strapless dress with delicate embroidery across the bust.

"The men aren't going to be able to tear their eyes away." Martha smiled as she looked over the women standing in front of her.

"As long as they keep their hands to themselves." Jenny smiled as Beckett and Lanie glanced at each other then back at her.

"Esposito knows not to mess with Lanie and Castle-" Beckett started.

"Knows you have a gun." Alexis laughed.

"He's smart and respectful when it really counts." Beckett told her and smiled.

"He may act like a 13 year old boy but Richard knows when the joke is done." Martha agreed. "Besides, Ryan is going to have the hardest time." She laughed as the women smiled and nodded. "Alright change back and we'll call Richard." They walked back to the dressing rooms and changed leaving Martha and Sam to talk while they waited.

"I thought they didn't want Mr. Castle seeing the dresses. Why are you calling him to come here?" Sam asked.

"Well he needs to pay for Alexis' dress and as long as the dresses are in their bags he won't see a thing."

"Who won't see?" they heard making both jump and look behind them as Castle smiled and Karen looked at the two.

"Richard Castle." Martha scolded but was stopped.

"Martha-" Lanie started but stopped seeing Castle standing with the woman and the girl. "Castle, what are you doing here? Weren't you told not to follow us or come peeking?"

"I… I wasn't peeking." He stammered looking at the upset ME. "Alexis said you were almost done and told me the place…" Lanie put her hand on her hip as he explained and Alexis walked out of the changing room with her dress in the bag.

"Dad, you're not supposed to be here yet." Alexis said, as he looked at the women confused. "Come on." she said before walking over, taking his hand and pulling him away towards the cash register.

"You said you were almost done…" He trailed off confused.

"But I thought it would take you longer to get here. Beckett's going to be so mad if you were peeking." She warned as he stopped and shook his head.

"I wasn't peeking, I came in and saw Gram talking with Sam." The two glanced back as Karen started talking with her daughter and Martha.

"Why didn't you tell Beckett about you helping Ms. Walker? She seemed upset."

"Upset? Why would Beckett be upset?"

"I don't know she just did." They walked over the register. "And you know if she finds out you're paying for her dress she's going to be so mad at you. You should at least tell her."

"I will… later." He turned as the cashier rang up Alexis' dress. "And I'm also paying for Kate Beckett's dress." The cashier nodded and started flipping through her papers to find the right one before bringing it up.

"How much will you be putting on it today?" The woman asked.

"Whatever the price is." He told her with a smile as she nodded and rang it up. "You really think she's going to be mad?" Alexis looked at him as he sighed. "You're right." He looked at the cashier. "Don't tell her that I was the one who paid." The woman paused and looked at him a minute before nodding. Castle picked up the garment bag for his daughter and turned to get his mother. Castle walked over to her, Karen and Sam with Alexis. Beckett was walking out when she saw the group talking and saw Castle set Alexis' bag down before he put his hand on Karen's back and started leading her and Sam towards the doors talking. She stood still for a minute thinking over what Martha had told her earlier. This scene did nothing to speak Martha's words as true so she took a deep breath and looked up as Castle returned with a smile. Beckett walked over to them with her garment bag in her arms as Lanie and Jenny joined them.

"You weren't spying were you?" Jenny asked making Castle shake his head.

"I am not stupid enough to go up against you women when it comes to dress secrets." Jenny smiled as she, Lanie and Beckett walked towards the cashier to make a payment on their dresses. Castle picked Alexis' dress back up as he walked over with his mother and daughter.

"Good night, Castle." Lanie said as he nodded.

"Good night ladies." He said as they left.

"Name?" The cashier asked.

"Kate Beckett. I'd like to pay two hundred this time." The cashier looked at her a minute confusing the women.

"Your dress has already been paid for." The woman said looking at the confused Beckett who looked at the other two women.

"Who paid for it?"

"I'm sorry I can't say." Beckett stood trying to think before Lanie nudged her out of the way.

"Come on girl, you know who paid for it, and you can't even get mad at him." She looked at the cashier as Beckett sighed. "Lanie Parish." Kate grabbed her dress from the counter and laid it over her arm.

"I'll see you tomorrow Lanie. Night Jenny." She left the two and went home contemplating what to do to Castle for paying for her dress and not telling her. She knew he was rich, but she hated when he would throw his money around as if it was nothing, especially when it was him buying things for her. There were only a few things he bought for her and even though they weren't all that expensive she still hated him spending money on her. After all, it wasn't like they were dating or anything.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So who are you bringing to the wedding?" She heard Ryan asked as she walked towards her desk. "Or are you going to keep it a mystery until you show up?"

"It's probably that woman from yesterday." Esposito said.

"Just for that you're not going to find out until we show up." Castle said as Beckett stopped at her desk seeing a hot coffee sitting on her desk making her give a small smile.

"We think we found an id for our Vic." Esposito said as he grabbed the file on his desk and walked over to her with Castle and Ryan. He handed her the file.

"Cathy Rountree." Beckett read. "When did you id her?"

"Last night before we left. We figured we'd give it another ten minutes before we left and Castle found it."

"35 years old, reported missing 3 weeks ago by her boyfriend."

"And the real freaky part." Esposito handed her another file. "The boyfriend, Matthew Hernan, went missing a day after he reported her missing and was found a week later wandering the streets with no memory of the last 2 weeks." Beckett looked at him.

"I called him in this morning. He's in the break room waiting." Ryan added.

"Good. See if you can run down anything about them right before they disappeared. Castle and I will talk to the boyfriend." The two detectives nodded as she drank her coffee. She turned and started towards the room glancing over her shoulder to see Castle walking with her. "Hi, I'm detective Kate Beckett, this is Richard Castle." She introduced before they sat across form the man with shaggy blond hair and watery gray eyes.

"You really found Cat?" He asked looking between the two.

"I know this is hard for you, but we need to ask you a few questions." Matthew nodded. "Do you remember anything before she went missing?"

"Yeah, I got my memory back of the week before but that's it. Not even flashes after that." He said shaking his head.

"What happened before she disappeared?" Beckett asked.

"She got ready and went to work and I left a few minutes after her. i-I was almost done my shift when I got a call from her work. They said she left for lunch and never went back and they couldn't get a hold of her."

"Was she meeting with anyone?" Castle asked

"No, not that anyone knows of. I'm sorry… I just…. I knew something was wrong and I called the cops. They said I had to wait to report her missing. Her friend came over and we waited for news, anything to tell us what happened. We never got anything so as soon as I was aloud I called and reported her missing and…"

"Do you remember anyone hanging around her or you before this happened?" Beckett asked and Matthew paused trying to think.

"No, no one I can think of. Nothing out of the ordinary." He said shaking his head

"We're going to do our best to get the person who did this. If you think of anything, make sure you call and let us know." She handed him a card.

"Even the strangest detail could help." Castle added as the man nodded.

"Could I see her?" He looked between the two. "I… the other detective told me that she doesn't look like she did. How-how did she die? Did she suffer?"

"As far as the ME has determined, she was starved." Beckett said softly as Matthew began to cry. "If you want we can arrange for you to see her, but you should be prepared." He nodded. "I'll have an officer escort you to the morgue." She stood up and walked out with Castle, telling the officer outside to take Matthew to the morgue before she and Castle walked back to her desk.

"He didn't give much." Castle said as he took his seat to the side of his desk.

"We'll talk to the friend and her work. They might have noticed something there that she didn't tell him about." She told Castle as she grabbed her keys and they started out to the car. "So you and Karen seem to be hitting it off well. Why haven't you been bragging about her like you when you usually get a girlfriend?" Castle looked at her as they stepped into the elevator.

"That's because we're not going out." He told her.

"Didn't look that way yesterday." The elevator doors closed and he looked at her as she looked straight at the doors. "Alexis said you two have been hanging together for a few weeks. Never saw you act like that with a woman you weren't dating or trying to get with."

"Her husband left six months ago and the divorce was just finalized a month ago. She's had a rough few months and we got to talking when she dropped Sam off one day. There's nothing going on between us." Beckett glanced at him and shrugged but remained silent as he turned to look at the doors wondering why she was so interested in his relationship with Karen.

"That was a bust." Beckett said as she and Castle climbed back into the car after talking with Cathy's coworkers. It was now passed seven and they were still nowhere. Not one person noticed anything and there was nothing on record of any arguments or fights with Cathy. They still had no leads. She sighed as her phone rang. "Beckett." She answered. "Yeah, we're on our way." She hung up and looked at Castle. "Esposito and Ryan found something." She started driving back as he remained silent.

Castle knew she was still upset with him. she always told him when she got a boyfriend and always talked to him, told him what was going on but today, since they left the station, she had spoken only to him when it was about the case. He was confused but decided it better to remain silent than to say something that might cause more problems. Beckett glanced at him as he looked out the window. She knew she was being ridiculous. If he wanted to date someone and not tell anyone that was his business. She didn't know why she was so upset about it but she was. She turned back to the road and they rode in silence.

"What did you find?" Beckett asked as she and Castle walked over to Esposito and Ryan's desks.

"We found ten more cases that fit the MO. They weren't linked because of the slight differences but they're close enough to take a look at."

"Ten?"

"Yeah, all had the girlfriend or wife go missing between 2 to 6 weeks. The boyfriend or husband missing 1 to 3 days after she is reported missing. He is found wandering a week later with no memory of at least 2 weeks before. Ten cases over the last 5 years, the women are always found dead. Seven starved, and three strangled. No one was arrested." Esposito outlined before pointing to the board. "Those are the victims. All mid 30's."

"They look very similar." Castle said looking at each picture of the women. "Brown hair, hazel eyes…"

"Someone was killing women who looked like someone close to them." Beckett said as she looked at the board.

"We're looking for one messed up guy." Esposito said. "Lanie said our Vic had marks on her right ankle from being tied up and she was cut and scraped up. Other than that and starvation she didn't find anything else."

"What about the other victims?" Beckett asked.

"Same marks. All found in abandoned buildings by various people." Ryan told her as she nodded. "Did you find anything out at the Vic's work?"

"Nothing. No strange people, no fights, absolutely nothing." Castle told the two men before everyone fell silent.

"Okay, let's take a look at the files for these other victims and see what we can piece together for time lines. We might be able to find a common fact." Esposito handed her several files as Ryan took several, as did Castle leaving him with two. They sat down and got to work flipping through the pages reading the information before making a timeline for each victim on the board.

"Okay." Beckett said as they wrote the last fact on the board. "Does anything line up?" The four looked over all the information trying to connect all the victims with the same facts.

"They were all taken around work." Castle said pointing out the times. "It started after, then before, then during."

"They wanted people to start to notice faster, they wanted people to know they were gone." Ryan said.

"That only means the cops were on the trail faster." Beckett said. "They wanted us to find the trail."

"But no one ever did." The four fell silent all thinking. "We don't have anything that could help us. We're dead in the water." Castle shook his head.

"What if it all has to do with the work?" He said moving closer to the board. "It's the only thing that is the same with all of the victims. They were all taken on their way to work, as they left work or when they were on their lunch breaks. It revolves around their work schedules."

"Talk to the work places of each victim. See if they have anything to add and get a list of people working there. We might get lucky." Beckett told Esposito and Ryan who nodded and went to work leaving her and Castle to continue to look at the board.

"There's something here…" Castle trailed off as Beckett nodded and leaned against her desk, next to him. They stood staring at the board until his phone rang, he looked at the caller id and smirked. "Hey sweetie….. Yeah of course, just tell Gram. I'll be home in a bit….. Love you too. Bye." He hung up putting his phone back in his pocket.

"Alexis?" Beckett asked.

"Yeah, she's going to stay over Sam's house for the weekend. She's going to wait until I get home so my mother doesn't decide to through a quick party." He explained as Beckett looked at her watch. She was surprised to see it was nearly eight at night. They had spent so much time traveling and looking at the new cases that time flew passed.

"Got a hold of most of the places, they're going to send over the information in the morning." Ryan told her. "We have a few names to go over while we wait."

"Go through what you have and call me if a red flag pops." Ryan and Esposito nodded. Beckett turned back to look at the bored and noticed Castle was still sitting on the edge of the desk looking at the information on the board. "Don't you have to get home to Alexis and your mother?"

"It's just something…. There's something we're missing…." He trailed off as she nodded.

"Well we should go home and look back on it with fresh eyes in the morning. It's a lot of information to sort through and a lot to work out." Beckett sighed not taking her eyes from the board but looking over every mark on the board hoping something would pop for them. She heard Castle let out a breath before pushing from the desk.

"I guess you're right. See you in the morning." He told her making her look at him and nod.

"Night Castle." She replied as he started for the elevator. Esposito moved closer, sitting in the old chair Castle usually occupied, and he glanced sideways at his senior detective. She was too occupied watching Castle make his way to the elevators she never realized he had moved over to her. Looking back at the board, she saw the glance. "What?"

"Nothing." Esposito said turning fully towards the board to look at the information they had gathered so far. After ten minutes of staring, Beckett let out a heavy breath before climbing to her feet.

"Finish what you need and then get some rest. We'll start back up in the morning. Hopefully those lists will give us something to go on in the morning." Beckett grabbed her jacket and started towards the elevators. "Night." The two men nodded their good nights before finishing their work for the night.

Castle lay in his bed that night. His mother was out doing, only god knows what, and Alexis was spending the night with Sam, leaving him alone in the apartment. Alone with only the frustration of the case rolling in his head causing him to toss and turn, staring at the walls and ceiling, he knew he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. He turned again looking at the clock on the nightstand and read the time, one in the morning. Sighing again, he rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling trying to think of what it was they were missing in the case. He couldn't think of anything that fit together. Knowing he wasn't going to get any sleep he climbed from his bed, dressed and headed back to the precinct to try to stare at the board and fit things together again.

Castle walked off the elevator and towards the board only to see Beckett sitting at her desk staring at the board. She was having the same kind of night as him and there was no stopping the insomnia tonight.

"Beckett…" He trailed off as he walked closer to her desk. She jumped slightly as she turned to look at him, sitting up straighter. Castle gave a small smile as he saw her startle at his approach as he came to a stop beside her. "I take it you couldn't sleep either."

"No. I just kept thinking about the evidence we have. It leads absolutely nowhere. By now, we usually have a lead of some kind, but there's absolutely nothing. It's like these victims were just picked up, tortured and killed. There's something we haven't seen yet." Castle nodded. Shrugging out of his jacket, he looked over the board. The two stared for an hour trying to put facts together when Castle stood up and walked closer. "You see something?"

"Maybe nothing…" He trailed off looking at the old cases. "The first victim went missing for two weeks, one day after reported the boyfriend disappears, found wandering a week later with no memory. Second victim. Missing two and a half weeks and boyfriend disappears one day after reporting for one week. Third victim. Missing two and a half weeks, this time husband goes missing two days after reporting her missing and he is found a week later. Fourth victim-."

"3 weeks, husband missing two days after and found a week and a half later…" Beckett trailed off and looked at Castle. "All with no memory of the time they were missing."

"The killer went from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife but the all the markers stayed the same. Why were some killed and some starved and why the difference in finding the bodies?" Castle wondered aloud as he thought.

"The first three were strangled, the rest starved. Starvation could take weeks to kill a person. The killer might not have had long with the place he was keeping the first three and needed to end it fast and the others were in a place he could wait them out."

"Why the switch back to boyfriend and girlfriend targets?" They both paused wondering this fact as only three of the ten were only boyfriend and girlfriend matches. The others were married. They looked at the information under each victim. Beckett shook her head with no answer to his question.

"Well from the time line of the past the killer does things in twos. First couple are taken and discovered, and two months from the date the first woman was taken the second couple go through everything then he goes into hiding for the rest of the year only to pull it again every year."

"They're looking for their next targets." Castle said looking back at Beckett who nodded. "We still have another five weeks before the two months mark that's a lot of time for them to move and find their new target."

"And the victims are from all over the east coast. They could be picking their target anywhere."

"No." Beckett looked at him as he pointed to the victim's information. "Every time he took the two couples, it was always from the same area before he moved onto the next two in another place. He took the first couple here in New York; the second couple will be from New York."

"But how do we find the guy if we don't have any leads or ideas at all?" The two looked at each other for a minute before they sighed and looked at the board, leaning back onto the desk for support.

"I don't know, but we'll find something." Beckett nodded as she sat down in her desk chair and Castle took his usual seat going over every piece of information in their heads. "Could Lanie get any prints from the body? Maybe the killer left a print on her or…. What about the area the body was found?"

"CSU collected hundreds of prints from the scene. They're running down each one now but it's going to take a while to get through them all and figure out what ones are from the killer and what ones are just homeless drug addicts who took shelter in there." Castle nodded as he began staring off into space. "Maybe we really do need to try to stay away for a few hours before we try to retake all the information." Castle shrugged.

"Well I'm not going to be able to sleep, and I doubt you will either until we at least have a direction to move." Beckett nodded and the two fell silent. "Who are you taking to Ryan's wedding?" Castle asked making Beckett's eyes snap to him with a confused look. "I figure we need to unwind and take our mind off things to be able to have fresh eyes when the others come in, let's try talking about something else." He shrugged as she looked a t him another minute.

"No one. What about you?" She asked giving into his idea. She knew his ideas were obsered but sometimes he was right. Castle looked at her a minute, kept his blue eyes locked with her hazel ones before he answered.

"No one." She looked at him confused. "And before you start asking. No, Karen and I are not together. When I told you we talked, I was telling you the truth. She needed someone who knew what a divorce was like. Even if the reasons were completely different." He watched as she paused before nodding.

"I know. You don't need to explain yourself to me, Castle." He gave her a small smile before he looked at his watch making her check the time as well. "Almost three."

"It's going to be a long day." Castle said making Beckett nod. "Maybe we should try to rest before Esposito and Ryan come in and we're too run out to do anything." He offered and saw her think about the idea for a minute before giving in. The two grabbed their jackets and stood up walking out together to head to their separate beds for a few hours of sleep before they were hard at work once again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Castle walked over to Beckett's desk holding a cup of coffee like the one he did every morning, pausing for a second seeing Gates standing by the desk looking at the board with Beckett nowhere in sight. He looked around quickly and saw Esposito and Ryan moving quickly into the break room. He turned and made his way in, seeing Beckett at the table as the two men stopped in front of her. Castle walked over to her and handed her the coffee, earning him a smile before they all looked through the blinds at Gates.

"What's going on?" Castle asked as they continued to watch.

"She wants point." Castle looked at Beckett while she explained, as Esposito and Ryan turned to look at her quickly. "She said she was assisting on one of the original cases and she wants point on it now."

"You can't be serious." Ryan said looking at Beckett who just looked at him. "There's no way we're going to be able to work with her. You know we can't solve this by following her and her rules."

"Ryan's right, she seems to only find a person to fit and call it good." Esposito said. "She doesn't dig. Remember the last case. She got mad at us because we had a few people we were questioning and she wanted each one we brought in. She threatened that if we didn't get a confession from the next person we brought in she would fire us. There's no way we can do this. Not with a big case like this."

Castle watched as Beckett listened to the two detectives. The four of them were a family, they had their way of working and they did better than anyone in the precinct, hell in even the other precincts in the city. They knew Gates would want them to do the work her way and that wasn't going to let them find the truth. Beckett looked at Castle who was still watching her, waiting like the other two for an answer from her.

"We work our case, she's point but we do our jobs, and we solve this case like any other." She told them.

"Beckett!" They heard making Beckett grab her coffee from the table and stand up.

"We solve this case and find the truth." She told them before she walked out. The three men looked at each other for a moment before following out to the bullpen where Beckett was walking up to Gates. "Yes sir?"

"Where are we with the evidence?" Gates asked as they stopped by the board.

"Well sir, we are tracking down the red flags we found on the list of employees from Cathy's work.-"

"Get a list of employees who worked at the other victim's jobs and see if any of the names match." Gates told her and started walking away.

"Sir." Beckett said making her turn to look at her. "We have already begun running the names from all victims to see if any connect." Gates looked at her before nodding and walking back into her office.

"We are still waiting on most of the other jobs the other victims worked at when they were taken." Ryan told her.

"See if you can match anything with what we have so far." She told the two men before she looked at the board with castle, both desperately trying to solve the case. "Any insane theories?" She asked without looking away making him glance at her a second before looking back at the board.

"The CIA is recruiting people for testing and the ones we find wandering are successes and their minds were wiped clean so they-" Castle started.

"Really, Castle?" She asked looking at him with a small smirk.

"Beckett." They heard seeing Gates leaning out of her office. She waved the detective over making Esposito, Ryan and Castle look at her, wondering what she did this time. She walked in and shut the door behind her before standing in front of the desk.

"Yes sir?"

"I have made a decision as the lead investigator on this case. As head of the investigation I am ruling this a deceive only case. We need people with the real training to find this bastard and I will not have this unit become publicized badly because we could not solve the horrible case. We had to call in a crime writer to do work and slow us down."

"Sir, Castle is not going to slow us down. He's been a tremendous help before. There are cases that we would never have been close to solving because we had him helping. You can't just kick him off the case."

"I can and I am. This is not up for discussion. I want him gone; I have no time to listen to a writer play cop. That's final." Beckett looked about to argue before she closed her mouth.

"Then I respectfully decline to continue with this case. If I am unable to work with my team, the very team who has solved more murders than other detectives in this precinct, I do not feel I will be able to properly continue my job of discovering what occurred." Gates looked at her a minute before leaning onto her desk and looking at Beckett with one of the coldest looks she's seen since the woman started working there.

"You do not get to decide that. Now, go tell that writer to go home and not come back on my case. I want you, Detectives Ryan and Esposito to get to work and start actually doing some work instead of playing." Beckett paused for a minute glaring at the chief before she turned and slammed the door behind her. She walked over to where Castle had wandered to, sitting with Ryan and Esposito.

"What's wrong?" Castle asked curious as to why Beckett was so angry.

"What happened?" Ryan asked.

"She wants only the detectives on the case." The three men looked at each other then back at her. "I tried to argue the facts but she is very adamant that it be only the three of us work this case with her."

"Just call the mayor." Ryan shrugged looking at Castle. He glanced at Esposito who was watching Castle as well. He and Beckett stood for a minute looking at each other before Castle broke the eye contact and looked at Gates sitting at her desk watching, and waiting.

"No. That's just going to cause her to be even more mad and then it's going to come down on everyone. No I'll head home and see if I can piece anything together from there." He said looking at his friends. "Just let me know if you find anything else." The two men nodded before Beckett and Castle started walking over to her desk. Beckett smirked as Castle quickly snapped and picture of the board and turned to grab his jacket.

"Take this and see if you can work anything out for us to go on." Beckett said as picking up a file from her desk while he turned his back blocking Gates view. "I'll call you if we come up with anything. Hopefully someone gets something today."

"Let me know if you need me to do anything." He watched her glance at Gates who was walking towards her office door. Beckett pushed the file in her hand towards Castle and slid it inside his jacket as Gates walked over.

"I believe I made myself clear." Gates said sternly making Castle turn to look at her.

"Yes. You did. I was just adding my last opinion in on the case and wishing Detective Beckett luck on solving this case." He said before he turned and started for the elevators.

"Any good last ideas or are they all his theory wall throwing?" Gates asked as Beckett shook her head. Gates paused a minute before turning and going back into her office. "Tell me as soon as we have something." She said before shutting her door again and Beckett sighed leaning back against her desk looking at the board.

"Think we can solve this without Castle and his crazy ideas?" Esposito said as he and Ryan walked over with a file each.

"We still have his theories, just not on the spot. He took a picture of the board and I gave him a copy of the information we have so far." She told them without looking away from the board.

"A picture? How's that going to help him? I mean it's going to be small on his phone, won't be able to see the whole picture." Ryan said making Beckett look at him with a smirk.

"When Castle and I were kicked off the task force for the bomb, he took a picture as we were kicked out and he hooked it up to a projector in his house and that's what we worked off of. He'll figure something out."

"It's easier if we're all together working things through though." Esposito said looking between the board and Beckett.

"If we could get a reason to leave we could probably meet up with Castle to work." Ryan offered.

"There's no way all three of us leave for a while and she doesn't suspect anything." Beckett paused looking at Gates who was looking over files on her desk. "I'll call Castle and see if he's free tonight. We can stop over after our shift and work off the book with him." The two men nodded. "What do you have?"

"These are the list of employees who worked at the facilities of each victim. Still waiting on a few more but figured we could get started with these." Beckett nodded as Ryan handed her a file and they started into the meeting room to start their work.

Castle sighed as he set the file on the table and pulled the projector and screen from their place in his study. He pulled the screen open and was walking behind it to the projector when he heard the door open. Peeking around he saw Alexis walked in with Sam and Karen. He smirked as Alexis walked over and stopped behind the couch making the other two do the same.

"Dad?" She asked as the light turned on.

"Yeah, sweetie?" He asked as he walked back over to the file on the coffee table to grab his phone to plug in. She saw him walk back and plug his phone in to revile the whiteboard from the precinct.

"First of all didn't Beckett tell you to stop taking pictures with your phone? And second of all why are you here with that all set up?" He walked back out in front and smirked at her.

"Well this time Beckett told me too." Alexis crossed her arms and looked at her father as if asking for the 'real' truth. "I'm serious. Gates kicked me out but Beckett and the boys still want my ideas so we're working this way." Alexis leaned on the back of the couch as Sam and Karen watched intrigued looking at the information on the board.

"What did you do?"

"I'm not a detective." Was all Castle said before he started flipping through the papers in the file. "There are ten other cases that took place over the last five years. Other than the MO we have nothing to go on."

"That must be driving Beckett nuts." Castle nodded.

"So what is it you do with the police?" Karen asked looking at Castle setting the papers on the table.

"Well I follow detective Beckett around for research for my Nikki Heat novels and I help on their cases. Been doing that for little over three years now and the new chief really hates it." He explained not looking up from the papers.

"Then why does she allow it?"

"Because dad has the Mayor call and make her." Alexis said. "Do you need help?" Karen watched as Castle looked at his daughter with a smirk.

"If you can solve this case, or even get us a strong lead, be my guest."

"Can I help?" Sam asked. Castle looked up at Karen who shrugged and was curious herself. The three women took seat around the coffee table. Alexis and Castle sat going through the papers as Karen and Sam watched intent on seeing them work.

After looking through the papers, scribbling everything on paper that was scattered on the table and Castle coming up with insane, funny ideas as to what happened Alexis sat up. Castle looked at her as she smiled. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Castle walked over to answer it. He smirked seeing the three detectives standing there with several files.

"You guys find anything?" He asked, stepping out of the way to allow them in. The boys walked over, saw the papers on the table with the others circling it, and decided to set up there while Beckett stopped in her tracks for a second seeing Karen sitting on the couch as Alexis sat to the other side and Sam sat in a chair. It was obvious Castle had been sitting between Karen and Alexis.

"Dad." They heard all looking at Alexis as she handed the paper to Castle with Becket looking over his shoulder at it. "According to reports for three cases there was a man walking around where the bodies were found. The police couldn't find any matches so the mystery man was never questioned."

"But how do we id the man?" Karen asked looking at the detectives as they all crowded around Castle looking at the report.

"We have to find him." Beckett said looking at the woman. "We need to find a trail, but this is a good start."

"If he's the killer he would have to be pretty close to the victims. At least close enough to know their schedules as well as their boyfriend and husband." Castle said as Beckett nodded.

"Did you guys see him at Cathy's work?" Ryan asked making Castle and Beckett look at the picture at the bottom of the page. They took a minute before shaking their heads.

"So where do you go now? I mean you don't have anything more." Karen asked making Beckett look at her a minute.

"Actually we found a few people to talk to from employee lists." She explained. "There were six red flags when we ran the names and they all had fitting records. Figured we would split the list. Ryan and Esposito take three and we take three."

"Thought I wasn't allowed to work this case." He said looking at her as she shrugged.

"She never said you can take a ride and get some fresh air." Beckett smirked. "Gates is getting pretty upset that we still have nothing."

"I don't know what she expects." Esposito said. "There's no prints, no dna, and no leads for this case and the other ten are cold cases with the same amount of information. She can't just expect us to get something out of thin air without some crazy CIA conspiracy talk." He looked at Castle as Beckett nodded.

"I know that. We all know that and that is why we are working it this way. We can't have fighting with the chief it will only end us in a not so good position and it will cause more problems than we already have. Besides, she already hates Castle. We start pushing and throwing fits to get him back in and we work the way he always did… She just might push back harder."

"Beckett's right. We can do the work here and then whatever we figure out you can run down back at the station." Castle said looking at the boys as they paused a minute and nodded.

"We were doing more than fine before…" Ryan started but trailed off seeing the others in the room. Castle handed the paper to Beckett before going to gather the other files and moving them to the dining room table.

"Alexis, why don't you and Sam go upstairs." She looked at him as he finished gathering the papers. It only took her a second before she turned and waved her friend to follow her.

"I guess I'll let you all work." Karen said pulling her jacket on as she started towards the door. "Good luck on your case."

"Thanks, Karen." Castle said before she left and they turned to the larger table. "So you guys found a few cons to talk to…. Were there any names that reoccurred between the victims?" He asked.

"No, there's no connection." Beckett told him as they laid the files out and started looking at the papers. "Any crazy ideas on how their connected might help." She said making him glance at her before going back and skimming over the list of names.

"There's not much else we can dig up until we know a direction." Ryan told him. "We've been over all these names and the only thing we could find was criminal records on a few. There's nothing else tying them together."

"We should still compare them to other lists as they come in." Beckett said as the two men nodded.

"Well I doubt any of my ideas would work for this stuff. We should talk with the cons and see if they say anything that could send you in the right direction. Maybe they saw something or someone or maybe someone confided in them, telling them what they were up to. That's probably going to be the best lead right now."

"Well there's still a few files that are coming in tonight. I have someone who's going to give me a call as soon as they come in." Ryan said. "As soon as they do, I'm going to pick them up and see if they match what we have so far."

"We have addresses for these cons." Esposito said looking at the mug shots and information. "Should we see if they're up?" He asked looking at Beckett who checked the time. Seven at night.

"Let's go see what we can get before it gets too late." She told them. "Call if you get anything from them." The two detectives nodded before they turned and left Beckett and Castle with the last three cons. Castle picked up the three papers and looked over them. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let me just tell Alexis and we can go." He said before he walked to the bottom of the stairs and called for her as he skimmed the information on the cons more.

"Yeah?" Alexis asked as she walked down to meet him.

"Beckett and I have some people to talk to. You and Sam going to be okay?" She nodded, hugging him with a quick kiss to his cheek before running back up the stairs. "Okay, this one seems to be the closest." He handed her the paper of a man with a shaved head and black eyes. She nodded and handed the paper back as they left.

Ryan and Esposito climbed the stairs to the last one on their list. Ryan knocked and they stepped back waiting for an answer, chatting softly about the subject they started in the car.

"I can't believe he's going out with the woman and he hasn't told anyone." Esposito said as Ryan nodded.

"Yeah, Beckett doesn't seem too happy about that." He observed.

"Well what do you really expect, they want to be together, and are meant to be together but they're too stubborn and blind to actually see it and do something about it."

"Instead they go find people to hurt the other." Ryan added as the door opened to revile a tall man with shaggy black hair and brown eyes. "George Stansber?" Ryan asked holding his badge up.

"That's me." He said looking between the two.

"We have a few questions we want to ask you about a coworker from a couple years ago, Teresa Pollard?" George looked at the two detectives confused.

"She was murdered a about a year ago. We were wondering if he had seen or heard anything about someone spending too much time around her, paying too much attention… anything." Esposito said making the man look at him.

"Man, I don't know anything about her. Heard she was dead, that's all I heard when that crap went down."

"No one talked to you or you didn't hear any rumors?" Esposito paused letting him think "You didn't have a beef with her?"

"What? No, man. Like I said. I ain't heard or seen nothing about her till it came out she was dead." He said defensively. "What you all accusing me of?"

"Nothing, we're just asking a few questions about if you remember anything." Ryan defended back before George shut the door making the two detectives look at each other. "Well I hope Beckett and Castle had better luck than we did."

"That's if she hasn't killed him yet." Esposito said as they turned back towards their car. "With how he got himself a girlfriend and never said anything, and is practically parading her around in front of Beckett, I'm surprised he's still alive now." The two laughed climbing into their car as Ryan called to see how they had done.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"We just finished with our last." Beckett said talking to Ryan on the phone as she and Castle made their way back to her car. "Yeah we hit the same thing. No one remembers anything. I don't think this is our link….. Head home. We'll see what comes through tomorrow." She hung up and looked at Castle in the passenger seat. He saw the look that crossed her face before she started driving to his loft.

"I'll see if I can scan through what you guys got today. Maybe I can make some crazy connection you haven't seen yet." He told her and saw her nod. He fell silent thinking about how upset she was and the rest of the ride back to his loft was spent in silence. Both thinking about the other and the events that had been happening recently. Beckett wondered if he was trying to hide Karen since she didn't have a boyfriend at the time, while Castle was still trying to figure out what was going on with her. Time moved quickly and before they knew it, she was pulling up in front of his building.

"I'll let you know if anything else comes up." She said looking over at him as he unbuckled. He started opening the door but stopped and looked at her.

"I'm not with Karen." He said making her look at him and furrow her brow. "I know you think I've been hiding a relationship but there's nothing between us. There's only one woman I have my sights on." He smirked before he climbed from the car and went back to his loft leaving her to think over what he had just told her. After a minute, she started back to her own apartment to sleep for the next day of dealing with Gates.

Castle sat at the dining room table the next night looking over all the papers the detective had left him the night before when his phone buzzed. Looking at it, he saw it was a message from Beckett.

'Nothing new so far. Ryan and Esposito are looking at more employee lists and running the red flags down now.' Quickly he replied.

Beckett was sitting in the conference room looking at financial with Gates across from her. She heard her phone buzz softly and looked to see a message from Castle in reply to what she had sent him.

'Sounds like they are having all the fun while you sit back and do nothing.' She gave a little smirk reading his comment before she typed in her replay and set her phone down.

'I'm not just sitting around. I get the job of working with Gates.'

"You have too many distractions." Gates told her making her look at the woman. "Boyfriends texting you through the day will only hinder your work."

"It's not my boyfriend and as long as I do my job and do it well I see no reason for you to worry." Beckett said replied before going back to work leaving Gates to look at her.

'Sounds like you're going to need a nice stiff vodka tonight. I have just the stuff.' Beckett bit her bottom lip to stop from grinning. After working with him for over three years and she could just hear his silly tone saying the words he sent. She quickly responded, 'sounds like a good idea.'

"Seems whoever it is, is a big distraction." Gates said making Beckett glance at the woman sitting across the table from her as Ryan and Esposito stopped at the doorway. "You are a good detective; if you took away your distractions you would be so much better."

"Castle is not a distraction. He may be a pain in the ass but he is brilliant when it comes to thinking outside of the box to solve our cases."

"He is not a detective and we have no place for him to be running around pretending to be one." Beckett looked at Gates for a minute, trying to hold back anything that would cause her to lose her job.

"We didn't find anything. We rand down every one of the names. There's no connection." Esposito interrupted making Beckett and Gates turn to look at the two men. "We're looking over some of the other lists but we're just not seeing any connections."

"Yeah, usually this is when Castle starts spouting ideas and usually there's one or two we can link to the evidence we have. Beckett's right, Castle is a huge help on our cases." Ryan explained.

Beckett's phone vibrated on the table again making everyone watch as she looked at it. Another text from Castle. Opening it, she saw Gates give a disapproving look. 'Well then detective, I will have my best stuff set for when you are done.' "Castle?" Esposito asked, watching Beckett nod. "Does he have a crazy theory?"

"Not yet." She replied rolling her eyes reading the text.

"How would he be getting any new theories if he is not working the case?" Gates asked making the three detectives look at each other. "Right?"

"Castle is part of our team." Beckett said pulling her papers together and standing up. "We're going to need our full team to catch this guy." She walked out, gabbing her jacket from the back of her chair at her desk and started for the elevators.

"Beckett." Esposito called after her.

"Let me know if you find anything else." She called over her shoulder as she walked into the elevator. As the doors closed, she pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed.

"Did you find something or are you calling for that stiff vodka?" She heard after two rings. She couldn't help but smile and roll her eyes.

"I have some more reports and lists that I thought you'd want to add to your collection."

"Well in that case, detective, I'll be waiting for the addition."

"I'm leaving now."

"See you soon." The two hung up and she was on her way.

Castle looked at his watch and saw that it had been five hours since Beckett had told him she was on her way over to his place, and she still wasn't there. He dialed her number and heard it ring before clicking to her voice mail and he hung up. Something was wrong, he could feel it. He decided to call Esposito and Ryan; maybe she had to go back and was just busy with work.

"Esposito." He heard.

"It's Castle. Is Beckett still there?" Esposito paused for a moment.

"No she left a while ago with her papers. I figured she was going to take them to you."

"She said she was on her way over with them. That was five hours ago." He was beginning to worry more and more. He heard Esposito adjust the phone.

"Ryan, get a trace on Beckett's phone."

"I'm on my way." Castle told him.

"See you in a few." They hung up and Castle moved as fast as he could grabbing his jacket and keys.

"Where are you going?" Alexis asked as she and Sam came down the stairs both smiling brightly. Alexis' face fell as she looked at her father's scared expression. "Dad? What's wrong?"

"Just stay here, don't go anywhere. Lock the door and don't let anyone in."

"Dad? What happened?"

Castle paused for a minute looking at his worried daughter before he took a breath. "Beckett's missing." Alexis' eyes went wide and her mouth opened slightly. "Stay and don't go anywhere." He told her quickly before he turned towards the door again. "I'll call you as soon as we know something." She nodded and locked the door behind him.

Castle ran out of the elevators and over to Ryan and Esposito who were trying to connect something from what they had. Gates looked through the window of her office seeing castle run stop to talk to the two men. She stormed into the bullpen and over to the three who were talking about what they knew.

"Mr. Castle." The three looked up at her. "You are not a detective and have no reason to be here, nor do you have any right."

"You may not like it but Castle can help." Ryan shrugged.

"My partner is missing and no one can figure out even an area she could be. I'm not leaving." Castle said taking two steps toward her. "I'm not going to back down from this. I'm not going to let Kate die because you are too stubborn to accept help from people who aren't detectives."

"You think you can find her when the entire department has been looking for her for the last hour?" Castle stood face to face with her, setting his face and leveling his eyes on her with a look she had never seen from the writer before he answered her.

"I will find her." The two looked at each other for another minute before Gates narrowed her eyes at him.

"Then find your partner." She turned and walked away leaving Castle and the two detectives stunned for a moment. They hadn't thought she would have agreed. He turned to look at the two before they jumped into the case.

"What was she working on?" Castle asked before Ryan turned pulling papers out of a folder on his desk.

"These are the papers that we got earlier. It's the list of employees from the rest of the vics. She was looking through them with Gates. She left after Gates told her that you were a distraction with the texting her." Castle looked at him a second and then took the file from the detective. He quickly walked into the meeting room with the large long table.

He spread the papers out and started skimming through the names trying to see if any rang a bell with the names he had been studying the last few days. The two detectives pulled the whiteboard into the room so they could work from on spot and they started going over everything they knew.

The three detectives were still trying to find something that would help them find their friend. They were becoming desperate. It has been a day and a half already and time was running out. Castle ran his hand over his face before looking back over the board. They were running on pure will to stay awake to find their missing friend.

"We have nothing to go on." Ryan said frustrated.

"Each victim was found in an abandoned building, one that would allow the body to be found. They were tied up and starved so we have some time to find her." Castle said trying to stay focused on the facts and what fit together. "We need to find a place that fits with where the other victims were found. It will at least narrow things down and we might be able to catch something from there."

"Okay well the other victims were found here, here…" Ryan began marking the places on the map and it began to revile a pattern. "It's…."

"a cross." Castle finished as he moved closer to the board. "There's one missing in the center. That's got to be where Beckett is." The two detectives moved quickly with Castle right behind them.

"Did you find something?" Gates asked seeing the three rush around the desks.

"We know where she's going to be." Castle told her as Esposito was on the phone and Ryan was working on his computer.

"Got it." Ryan said looking up at them. "There was a building that was just rented out three days ago." he read the address to Esposito who relayed it to the person on the phone and paused.

"Got it." Esposito hung the phone up and nodded. "It was rented to a Bryan Yates. His sheet is being faxed over now." He told them quickly before he went to get the paper.

"Bryan Yates?" Castle asked before taking off back to the papers in the other room. "I can't believe I didn't catch this before." He grumbled as he flipped through all the papers.

"What did you miss?" Gates asked before Castle turned eleven papers to face her making her look down at them. "Bryan Yates, Brian Yates, Brin Yates, Brian Yats….they're spelt different."

"They're the same person. There's no way that there are eleven people with the same name only spelt slightly different working at the work of each victim. I never put it together until Esposito said the name."

"Got his sheet." Esposito said as he walked into the room making everyone look at him. "Wife died six years ago. Since then he's been arrested on five counts of assault, two counts of attempted murder."

"Do we have an address?" Gates asked.

"Right here." Esposito handed the paper to her.

"Go get this guy."

"What about Beckett?" Castle asked making Gates turn to look at him.

"We bring the guy in and get him to tell us where she is so we aren't searching the large area. We don't have the man power to search the entire area." She turned back to Esposito and Ryan. "Go get the guy." They looked at Castle as he grabbed his jacket from the chair before he walked out quickly.

"Castle." Ryan called as he and Esposito caught up to him in the elevator. "What are you doing?"

"She's going to waste time finding this guy and hoping he'll tell us where exactly she is, we know the basic building and it might be huge but we need to get her safe first." The two detectives looked at each other.

"I got this guy." Ryan said giving a slight nod to Esposito. Castle looked at the two. "Get Beckett back. I'll take the unies and take this guy down."

"Let us know when you got him." Esposito said as the elevator doors opened. Ryan nodded and walked off to head off to the house of Bryan Yates leaving Castle to look at Esposito. "Let's get our girl back." Castle gave a little nod and followed Esposito to his personal car.

Ryan pulled his gun from the holster as he pointed the officers to surround the house as he led a few to the front door. He pounded on the door, "Bryan Yates! NYPD! Open up!" He yelled. His call was answered with silence. Ryan looked at the other officered before one kicked the door in and they swarmed the building, checking each room. Looking for the man who had caused so much trouble and taken one of their own, but finding nothing but furniture.

"There's no one here, sir." One said making Ryan pull his phone out to call Esposito.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Esposito." He answered. "We'll keep our eye out for him at the site." He hung up and glanced at Castle as they stopped outside the building, Esposito pulled a rifle from the back seat. "They searched the home. He's not there." Castle nodded and they two climbed from the car and moved through the building as quickly as they could trying to find where Beckett was.

"It doesn't look like there's anyone here." Castle said as they started their way to the basement. Esposito nodded as they came to base of the stairs where a door stood with a padlock on it. "Beckett…" Esposito started pounding on the lock with the butt of his rifle until the lock busted. They pushed the door open and they looked in seeing a person lying in the back of the room.

The two ran over to find Beckett unconscious with a rope around her ankle tying her to a pipe to the side. "I'll call an ambulance." Esposito said turning and starting through the building again. Castle reached out and lifted Beckett up resting the top of her body against him as he smoothed hair out of her face.

"Beckett." He said softly. "Kate. Open your eyes come on." He felt her shift slightly. "Kate." Slowly her eyes opened to look up at him and he couldn't help but smile down at her.

"Castle…" She whispered before reaching up grabbing his shirt. "Castle…"

"I'm going to get you out of here. Esposito is calling for some back up now." He gently adjusted her, shifted her into his arms, and started carrying her out. He turned the corner at the top to the stairs and heard a click making him stop in his tracks. Glancing down he saw Beckett was unconscious again.

"Turn around. Slowly." A deep voice said making Castle pause before turning slowly to face a tall man with messy black hair and dark gray eyes holding a gun up, level with Castle's face. "You just made my job a lot easier by coming to me." He grinned. "Back down." He waved the gun towards the stairs, back to the basement. When Castle didn't move. Bryan shifted where he stood holding the gun closer to Castle's face. "Move!"

"Castle." He looked down at Beckett as she opened her eyes. "Go…" Slowly he started moving back towards the stairs. Taking a few steps before he heard someone speak making him pause.

"Down on the ground." Esposito said making Castle turn and look up where he stood behind Bryan with his rifle to the back of him. "Now." Bryan paused for a second before he turned to hit Esposito but was a second too slow. Esposito swung his rifle around and hit him in the jaw with the butt. Bryan dropped to the ground unconscious as other officers ran over with Ryan and Gates.

"Is she okay?" Ryan asked looking at Beckett who again passed out in Castle's arms.

"There's an ambulance out front." Esposito told Castle who nodded and moved as fast as he could to get Beckett checked. Gates watched Castle move quickly before looking at Esposito. "We wouldn't have known about any of this without him. He really is a great part of this team, and we can't function properly without him. Even if his ideas and behavior is a little unorthodox." Ryan and Esposito looked at her, as if waiting for her reaction to everything that had just gone on.

"I stand corrected in my judgment of taking Castle off of the case. He seems to be capable of keeping up with the finest of detectives, even helping to close cases faster and more efficiently. I will allow him back on the team but he is to participate and behave accordingly. Although I stand by my decision that he is a distraction." Ryan and Esposito looked at each other before giving her a slight nod. She waved them off and they couldn't help the small smirks that formed on their faces before the three went to find Castle and Beckett.

"How is she?" Esposito asked looking into the Ambulance where paramedics worked on getting iv's running. Castle stood just outside watching. Waiting.

"They said she's very dehydrated which is causing her to lose consciousness. Other than a few scrapes, and bruises and major dehydration, she's fine." Castle explained, still not taking his eyes from where Beckett laid on the stretcher.

"We need to get her to the hospital to run some tests." A paramedic said turning to look at Castle and the others.

"Castle, go with Beckett." Ryan told him as he pulled the keys to his police car. "We'll meet you there." Castle didn't need to be told twice. He moved as fast as he could, jumping into the back of the ambulance as the doors were slammed shut and they were on their way.

Slowly he reached out taking Beckett's hand and holding it tight in his larger one. He knew she would be fine but seeing her lying on the white sheet with several iv's to help hydrate her unnerved him. He needed to feel her warming hand. He needed to know she was still breathing, her heart still beating. That she was still there, in front of him. He watched as her eyes started to crack.

"Castle." She whispered and felt him hold her hand a little tighter.

"Relax, we're just going to the hospital to make sure you're fine." Castle answered her knowing what she wanted to know before she could even ask. "You're really dehydrated. They need to get fluids in you and they want to make sure that's the only thing that's going on. It won't take long." She saw the concern clear on his face and the love was shining in his blue eyes that refused to look away.

"I'm okay." She told him and he couldn't help but give her a little smile. He felt her squeeze his hand tightly and the concern began to melt a bit as he watched the color come back to her cheeks, her eyes opened a bit more and her grip started to come back to normal. His smile grew wider and wider as he realized that she really was okay.

Beckett watched as the paramedics told the doctor what happened and what they had done while Castle still stood at her side. She was now sitting up, feeling much better as the doctor walked back over. Castle looked at Beckett for a second before pulling his phone from his pocket.

"I'm going to go call Alexis and let her know you're okay." She gave a small nod as he left to give her and the doctor privacy.

"Dad?" He heard quickly making him give a small smile.

"Yeah it's me. I wanted to let you know we got the guy and Beckett's fine."

"Really! Where are you?"

"They had to take Beckett to the hospital to make sure everything was okay, but they are saying she's just dehydrated. She should be able to leave in a little while. The doctor is talking to her now, so you don't have to worry."

"You should have her stay here until she's completely better. If she's dehydrated she shouldn't have to go back to her apartment all by herself. She should stay here where we can make sure she has enough to drink and everything."

"Alexis, slow down. Beckett's fine. Besides, they are giving her fluids through her iv. She'll be okay where ever she decides she wants to go."

"Will you just ask her?" Castle paused for a minute before giving a defeated sigh as the doctor walked out.

"I'll ask, but it's up to her. I have to go now. I'll call you later, pumpkin." He told her before hanging up. "How is she?"

"We'll keep her for a little while longer. I want to get another bag in her and then she should be fine to leave. She's just going to have to make sure she is drinking plenty of water when she goes home." Castle nodded and the doctor left. Castle turned and walked into the room watching as she paid attention to the nurse setting up another bag of fluids. As her eyes caught sight of him, she smiled.

"Good news is I'm fine." She told him making him walk closer to her.

"The bad news?" He asked knowing she had already found something.

"I have to stay out of work for at least three days." She explained with a sigh. He smirked and looked at her.

"Alexis seems to think you should stay with us until you are better."

"I'm fine."

"Try telling that to her. She looks up to you, and she really does care for you. She heard something happened to you and she's been freaked out and calling me constantly, since I went to the precinct almost two full days now." He looked at his watch to check the time. "She's been really worried. Still is a bit." Beckett looked at him. She was surprised to hear that his daughter was worried sick about her, and wanted her to stay with them until she was better.

"What about you?" She asked and Castle looked at her for a second, not sure how to answer. "Are you alright with me staying?" A small smile snaked across his face.

"Of course. It will set Alexis at ease and you probably should stay with someone so if you need anything you don't have to worry." He watched as she gave a small nod as Gates, Ryan and Esposito walked into the room.

"Looking better." Esposito said with a smile.

"Feel better. Thanks for finding me."

"Well we couldn't have done it without Castle." Everyone looked at Castle as he stood to the side silently watching.

"When are you getting out of here?" Ryan asked.

"Have to finish the fluids and then I can go home. Only problem I is have to stay there for at least three days."

"Yeah, well you get a mini vacation and we'll stop in to keep you company so you don't go crazy on us." Ryan smiled as Beckett laughed a bit and shook her head.

"There's no need for that." She smiled before Castle's phone rang and he left the room to answer it.

"We'll check in and see how you're doing later." Esposito said as he and Ryan said their goodbyes and left. Beckett looked at Gates who had taken a step closer to the stretcher.

"After recent events I have seen how needed Castle's help is. He is a great help at times, but I still think he is a huge distraction to you. You really would be a better detective without his fooling around." Gates told her making her shake her head.

"I am a better detective because of his fooling around." At the strange look Gates gave her she glanced at the open door where Castle was pacing by, on the phone. "I had always looked in one direction before him. I looked at things in black and white and there was no other way about it. After… I'm able to pick out more things, realize things faster and solve the case quicker. Especially with his help, even if some of his theories are crazy and he acts a little crazy."

Gates glanced at Castle before nodding. "Well he has already been given the okay to return to the team. When you are cleared, I'll see you back in the station."

"Yes sir." Gates left and Beckett sat watching Castle give a small smile. A smile she had come to associate with him talking with his daughter, the only person he gave that special smile to.

After four hours, Beckett had fallen asleep waiting for the iv to finish and Castle had found a chair in the corner of the room to sit and wait for the doctor to come in and discharge her. He was just about to doze off, his head leaning back against the wall when he heard a gasp. Sitting up quickly he saw Beckett looking around out of sorts. Castle jumped to his feet and moved to her side.

"Beckett." He said reaching for her hand. She was breathing heavy, tensed up.

"Castle." She said making him reach out to smooth her hair back.

"It's okay, Kate." He said before he felt her arms wrap around his neck pulling him closer. Acting on instincts, he wrapped his arms around her tightly and held her as she caught her breath. "It's okay. shhh." He shushed as he smoothed her hair. Slowly she relaxed and pulled back looking up at him.

"I-I'm sorry. I-."

"Don't worry about it." He told her as he pulled his arms back. A nurse walked into the room making both look at her as she smiled.

"Okay, I have your papers all ready for you." She pulled gloves on and began pulling the iv out and getting Beckett set up to go home. "Okay, just sign these papers and you can get out of here." Beckett nodded following the directions.

Castle stood to the side as Beckett collected her things. He watched as she sat on the side of the bed and paused. After a minute, she took a deep breath and stood up. He moved closer to her. "Beckett I know you can take care of yourself but maybe you should come to the loft. At least for a night or two. You know, to make Alexis feel better." She looked at him, brown met blue before she gave a small nod. He paused a minute before she stood up making him follow her.

Castle smirked as Beckett glanced at him surprised when she saw a black car sitting out front. "Castle."

"Figured you'd need a ride to where ever you were going to stay." He shrugged before opening the door for her, climbing in behind her and they were off to his loft.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A half hour later Castle was walking Beckett into the loft. As soon as he opened the door, Alexis was there with her arms wrapped around Beckett's waist making her stumble back a step. Castle reached out to steady her.

"I'm sorry." Alexis said pulling back to look up at the woman. "I'm just so happy you're okay." Beckett gave a small smile watching the girl.

"Try to get some sleep. She'll be there in the morning." Castle said making Alexis look at him. Beckett could see the bags under her eyes as she gave a small nod before hugging her father. He kissed the top of her head before she gave a gentle hug to Beckett and was off up the stairs for some much needed sleep.

"She looked exhausted." Beckett looked at Castle who nodded.

"No one's slept since you were taken. She was calling me every ten minutes to see if we had anything new." He explained as they walked over to the kitchen where he poured her a glass of water and handed it to her. "Have to keep drinking water." He smirked making her roll her eyes, but she took it and drank it all the same. "The guest room is upstairs, you going to be okay up there?"

"I don't need to have a baby sitter, Castle. I'll be fine." She put the glass on the counter and turned to walk up the stairs leaving Castle to watch her disappear up before he turned to his own bed for much needed sleep.

Castle lay down and before his head hit the pillow, he was out. After running non-stop for several days, his body was beyond exhausted. Beckett was safe and was now sleeping in the guest room in his home; the bastard who had hurt so many people was now behind bars. They could all relax.

Castle bolted upright hearing a quick call for him. "Dad!" Castle climbed from his bed and started towards Alexis. "Dad!" He heard again. He was running up the stairs when he saw Alexis running towards him.

"Alexis. What's wrong?" He asked worried.

"Detective Beckett. I think she's having a nightmare but she won't wake up." Castle moved passed her quickly, knowing that once the woman does wake up she's going to be disoriented.

Alexis followed him as he walked into the guest room and saw Beckett bolt upright breathing hard looking around, ready to bolt out of the door until she saw Castle sit on the side of the bed. As soon as she saw him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him as he calmed her breathing, letting a few tears slip down her cheeks.

"Shh. It's okay, you're safe." He soothed as he held her tight. "You're okay." After a minute he felt her relax in his arms. "Come on; let's go down stairs for a bit." Beckett never said a word, just turned and aloud Castle to lead her out of the room. Castle let go for a second before turning to Alexis. "Go back to bed. It's okay, sweetie." Alexis looked at him and glanced at Beckett before going back to bed leaving her father to take care of the woman.

"Castle, I'm fine." Beckett said as he started leading her down the stairs.

"I know, just humor me okay?" She yawned and followed. She was too tired to argue or notice much of anything. She looked at her surroundings when he made her sit. Looking around she realized they were in his bedroom and she was sitting on his bed.

"Castle." She said with a warning tone, looking up at him with confusion clear in her eyes.

"Relax. Get some rest in here; I'll be in the other room if you need me. This way I don't have to run up the stairs to see you." He smirked making her shake her head and lay down against his pillows. "Good night, Kate." He covered her and turned to leave until she reached out grabbing his arm. "Kate…"

"Stay…" He looked at her. "Stay, Castle." She sat back up making Castle sit back on the side of the bed. "I can't…. I …"

"It's okay. Just let me turn the light out." She gave a nod and watched as he walked over to the light switch, just now realizing his attire. He was barefoot with flannel pants and a white undershirt that seemed to hug his toned chest.

The light went out and she felt the other side of the bed dip telling her that he was settling. She lay back slowly and rolled to the side finding Castle lying on his back. She refused to think about her actions. She scooted closer laying her head on his chest and setting her hand on his stomach. It took a moment but he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

"I'm sorry, Castle." She whispered.

"Don't worry about it. Just get some sleep." He felt her relax into his side as her breathing evened out. Castle let out a slow deep breath. After he knew she was asleep, he finally let his own body relax and fade into sweet rest.

Castle awoke slowly. Opening his eyes he noticed he was alone, and then the smell of breakfast reached him making him smirk as he climbed from his bed and made his way out to the kitchen where Beckett was cooking while Alexis and Martha sat talking with her. He smiled, watching the scene in front of him for a moment before walking over. He stopped to kiss Martha and Alexis' cheeks.

"Good morning Mother. Pumpkin." The two smiled saying good morning back to him as he walked around the counter to stand beside Beckett, taking the spatula from her to finish the scrambled eggs.

"You should cook breakfast all the time." Alexis smiled at the woman who couldn't help the smile that spread across her face.

"You think this is good, you should taste my mother's chicken parm."

"Well then I think we need to take a trip to the store." Castle said making the three women look at him. "What?" he looked at Beckett. "You said you would stay until you could go back to work." He explained taking a bite of a piece of bacon.

"I said I would stay until I was better, and I'm better."

"You really should stay and relax, darling." Martha said looking at the younger woman. "It's no fun sitting alone when you're not feeling well, just stay here." Beckett looked at Castle who only shrugged watching the women talking.

"I better leave or I'm going to be late for school." Alexis said climbing from her seat before she hugged Martha. "Bye dad." She hugged Castle and kissed his cheek. "Bye detective Beckett." She smiled.

"You can just call me Beckett or even Kate if you want. You don't need to use my title." Beckett explained making Alexis smile at her.

"Bye Kate." Alexis turned gabbing her bag from the counter and left.

"I have a late class and a meeting tonight. I won't be home until late." Martha said as she gathered her dishes to put in the sink. "Relax for a while, Kate. And Richard, behave yourself." Beckett couldn't help the little smile that crossed her face.

"Yes mother." Castle leaned down kissing Martha's cheek. "I'm not the one who needs to behave." Martha looked at him and Beckett watched curious before Castle pointed to ten open bottles of several kinds of liquor. "No more helping yourself and friends to my liquor."

"It was a celebration." She paused and then sighed. "Fine. Good-bye, darling." Castle nodded and smiled at her as she left. He turned back to the food that Beckett had made.

"You don't have to stay here if you don't want to." He told her taking a bite of the eggs. Beckett nodded silently, busying herself with cleaning the counter. She felt him look at her before he went to the cabinet, pulling out plates. "Did you eat yet, or were you just catering to my mother and daughter?" She shook her head as he put the plate in front of her.

Beckett let out a slow breath. "Castle, last night...I-"

"Don't worry about it." He shrugged.

"No, Castle. You and Alexis didn't sleep in two days and then when you finally get to sleep I wake you both up." She looked up at him. "And as if that wasn't bad enough I take over your bed…" She trailed off looking back at the counter at the end. Castle turned to face her.

"It's really no problem. You actually helped Alexis sleep. You staying here set her mind at ease that you were okay. As for taking over my bed, you can do that any time you want." He finished with a grin making her roll her eyes. "You can stay here as long as you want, even if it's not in my room. And if you need to just talk about anything, all of us will listen." She was surprised at how serious he looked just then. She nodded locking her brown eyes with his blue ones.

"Thank-you, Castle."

"Always." She couldn't help but give a small smile as he turned away to look back at the food. "We should probably get eating before it's all cold." She nodded and they began piling their plates.

"What are you planning on doing today? Considering I'm not at the precinct to get a case."

"I don't know, figured I'd get some writing done. What about you? Have any plans?" He led them over to the table to sit and eat.

"Nothing particular. I'm not used to having off like this." Castle just nodded as he dug into his food.

"Well if you'd like to stay for at least dinner we can go shopping and get what you need for your special chicken parm." She gave a small smile before she nodded.

"I need to go to my place and get some things if I'm going to be staying until I go back to work." She saw him pause for a mere second before he grinned.

"So should I be expecting to only have the edge of my bed again?" She rolled her eyes and shook her head as he grinned until his phone rang. "Castle." He smirked and held out his phone. "Lanie." Beckett took the phone and pulled it to her ear.

"Why are you calling Castle to talk to me?" She answered. "Why did you assume I would be with him?... I was still weak when they released me and he talked me into it." She looked at him to see if he was paying attention and was surprised to see him focused on eating. "When I go to the precinct to get my phone, I'll stop down to see you….okay, bye Lanie." She hung up and set his phone down beside his plate. "Sorry. She gets worried when I don't talk to her for a few days let alone right after something happens." Castle shook his head, waving off her apology.

"We'll get your phone and you visit Lanie and then we can go shopping." She nodded as they went back to eating talking about what they needed to get.

Castle set the bags down on the counter before he looked over at Beckett as she sat heavily on the stool at the counter. "There's still a while before Alexis gets home. Why don't you go lay down in my room. I'll wake you up in a few hours." She looked at him curious for a minute. "You look tired."

"I'm fine, Castle." She tried but a yawn gave her away. "Okay, maybe I'm a little tired." She gave a shy smile as he smirked. "Maybe I will lie down." She stood up as Castel walked around the counter to grab another bag from beside her. She leaned over and kissed his cheek quickly. "Thank you for everything."

Castle was frozen, but managed to snap himself out of it to look at her. "It's the least I could do, Kate." He grinned.

"No, I'm serious." She looked at him sternly. "You are always there when everything happens. Thank you for not pushing or anything. Thank you, Rick."

"You don't have to thank me. When I say always, I mean it." She nodded before turning and walking towards his bedroom leaving Castle to take a deep breath and then going back to putting the things they bought away.

He was putting the last thing away when he heard Beckett yell. "No!" He moved as fast as he could to get to her. "Castle!" She yelled just before he reached his room. He ran over to her and was barely at the side when she jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Shh. It's okay, relax, you're safe." He whispered as he sat on the bed pulling her into his lap. She was crying. He had never seen her this vulnerable. "I'm right here." He whispered as he smoothed her hair and held her tight. He just held her as she calmed and slowly gained back control. "You okay now?" He asked and felt her nod against him.

"I… I'm sorry. These dreams just…" She trailed off with a slight shudder.

"There's no reason to be sorry." They were silent still sitting with her in his lap, holding each other tight, her head buried in the crook of his neck. "Do you want to talk about them? It might help." He waited for her answer.

"I… I just have these dreams of being taken by that guy. He…" She took a deep breath and paused, but Castle remained silent letting her continue when she was ready. "I'm sorry I shouldn't-"

"It's fine." She pulled back to look at him.

"He jumped me when I got to my car. Knocked me out. I woke up in the trunk…. I was in there for hours, I was so worn out I couldn't even fight back when he took me out and locked me up…. I was… I was so….." She pulled herself back to him, tucking her head in the crook of his neck. "I've never felt so weak, so…. Scared." He stayed quiet. He knew it took a lot to have her open up and show how vulnerable she was. He let her continue in her own time, not wanting to make her close herself off again. "I just keep going through it and then it flashes to you hurt….I used to be so strong. I used to be able to fight back and I would never be reduced to this."

"In the last year you've been through a lot. You've handled more than anyone else I know. There's no reason to be so upset that this got to you." She nodded against him. "Just relax. It will get better and you have a bunch of people here when you need them."

"Thank you, Rick. For not making everything into a joke and just being there." She whispered and felt his arms tighten around her.

"Always, Kate." He said softly and he felt her shift to cuddle closer to him.

"Could… you just… stay." She shifted to look up at him without pulling away to see him looking at her slightly confused. "It's stupid really…"

"No, I get it." He said softly. "I'll grab my laptop, come back in and sit in here while you sleep." Beckett nodded and lay back against the pillow as she waited for him to return before dozing off again.

It had been a month before Beckett was fit for duty again due to complications with her dehydration. It was her first day back to the precinct and she still had Castle by her side. Through the last month, the two had somehow switched from partners to something more than partners. The sleepless nights Castle spent holding Beckett and easing her through her dreams still raged on although they were less frequent with him beside her. Beckett smiled as she was greeted by everyone in the precinct with Castle beside her holding out her morning coffee. They were more than partners, she wasn't quite sure they were to the point of no limits but she could feel her wall crumbling with each night he held her and took care of her. Castle had told her he loved her and she admitted that she loved him also but she wasn't ready to have any relationship yet. Her mother's case still haunted her and she needed to make sure she was the person she wanted to be before she finally let herself dive into things with him.

"It's good to have you back." Esposito said with a smirk.

"Especially since it means you're in charge and not him." Ryan added earning a look from Esposito. "What? You're less bossy with her in charge." He shrugged, as Beckett couldn't help the small smile on her face.

"Beckett." They heard making them look at Gates as she stood at her doorway. "There's a case in SoHo." Beckett nodded before grabbing her badge and gun from her drawer.

"Let's get back to work." She told her team as they rushed to grab their things and were off to another murder scene to get justice for the victim.


End file.
